Donald Trump’s pick for chief of staff is already making clear that the incoming president’s next administration will be devoid of drama – and that she won’t tolerate grandstanders or attempts to sabotage “the mission.”
Susie Wiles, who Trump tapped two days after Election Day to become his first major staff pick, made the comments Monday in an interview with Axios days before Trump is set to return to the White House.
“I don't welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles said in the Axios interview. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”
Wiles, 67, who is referred to by her boss as the “Ice Maiden,” reportedly expressed concerns to Trump over who he would make himself available to in the Oval Office. Notably, in his last administration, Trump’s past chiefs of staff struggled to rein in a revolving door of informal advisers, friends and family members from reaching the president's ear.
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Wiles said that the administration’s focus will be on “getting off to a quick start and staying on that pace, together with an expectation of excellence every day.”
Plans include "rolling back redundant and burdensome regulations, keeping taxes low, cutting government waste through DOGE [the new Department of Government Efficiency], and most importantly, sealing the border and deporting criminals who are in this country illegally,” Wiles told Axios.
While the longtime Florida campaign operative called the first 100 days of any new administration "an artificial metric," Wiles is instead looking toward the period between the inauguration and the 2026 midterms as critical to pushing through Trump's political agenda. Republicans will have a rare trifecta of the federal government for the next two years once Trump is sworn into office.
"I have every hope that the 47 administration will not have the same number of attempts to put sand in the gears," she told Axios. "We are off to a fast start with congressional work, hiring the best people, preliminary discussion with heads of state, fine-tuning his policy agenda, and planning for the first 100 days."